Jaws Quotes

"Jaws" was a blockbuster hit for young director Steven Spielberg, and besides the action and suspense, the clever "Jaws" quotes spoken by the cast of memorable characters had something to do with it. The story of a shark terrorizing the coast of a small town, Amity, and the three men who go to fight the shark, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), shark expert Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), is full of memorable "Jaws" quotes from the three main characters. Here are some of the most memorable "Jaws" quotes.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat." This line from Brody is a massive understatement, and one of the most quotable Jaws quotes. It appears over and over in pop culture as a shorthand statement expressing that someone is massively underprepared for a situation, and as a result is perhaps the best of all of the memorable Jaws quotes.

"This shark, swallow you whole." Quint, the always super-cool Robert Shaw, utters this line when justifying his price to hunt and kill the shark. He's proven right in the end, after uttering one of the most memorable "Jaws" quotes.

"It's only an island if you look at it from the water." This is the witty Brody justifying why a man who hates the water can live on an island. It is part of the verbal jousting between himself and the nerdy Hooper that fills up much of the time waiting for the shark to attack again, keeping the audience entertained with banter as the suspense builds.

"A tiger shark's like a garbage can. It'll eat anything. Somebody probably threw that in a river." This line comes from Hooper, when they find a license plate on the shark. It's what it follows-up that makes it one of the more memorable "Jaws" quotes: "He didn't eat a car, did he?"

"Smile, you son of a bitch!" The last of the memorable "Jaws" quotes comes at the climax of the film, as Brody finally gets his victory over the shark. This "Jaws" quote has been known to elicit cheers from audiences in theaters watching the film.

Despite the wonderful script full of memorable "Jaws" quotes, this is not a film about words; it is about rising tension and action. To get the full picture, see it in a theater, a packed one, if you can.